Analysis of 3 movie trailers

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watch 3 trailers for films in your chosen genre (sub genre). analyse them in terms of their style, music, stars, plot, editing, graphics etc.

Transcript of Analysis of 3 movie trailers

Page 1: Analysis of 3 movie trailers

watch 3 trailers for films in your chosen genre (sub genre). analyse them in terms of their style, music, stars, plot, editing, graphics etc.

Page 2: Analysis of 3 movie trailers

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT:STYLE:-The lighting of this trailer is dark, giving it a grungy/horror feel which reflects theconventions of a horror-The only colours used are black and white; complying with the horror genre-The cinematography in the trailer is made to look amateur as possible in order to create the ultra realism. The whole trailer/film is shot in the found footage style, to make the film look like a real student documentary. Therefore, this trailer doesn’t stick to the strict conventions of a traditional film (precise camera angles, shot sizes, zoom, tracking etc.)

MUSIC/SOUND:-This trailer has no main soundtrack to accompany the film however features sound effects. This adds to the ultra realism intension of the film-The sound effects used include screaming, characters in distress and repetitive music effects (to create tension)

STARS:-The trailer gives no indication of who is featured in the film, thus giving the impression the characters are unknown. This is evident as big, budget, different genre films promote big starts who star in that film.

PLOT:-This trailer purposely doesn’t give away the plot of the film at all; therefore this trailer’s purpose is to portray the genre conventions of a horror and, primarily, to scare the audience.

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THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT:EDITING:-There is no conventional editing technique used except for the use of cross cutting between clips of the film. Used to show the main, scary parts of the film.-However, also text and music is added to create a professional looking trailer-Text is also used to to promote how critics perceived the film (good!). Also, these quotes are written in a conservative way to further emphasise the found footage style of filmmaking

GRAPHICS:-There are no graphics used in this trailer as the film is made to look realistic, therefore no unnecessary graphics are used to make the film look professional and expensive-Also, text graphics are used to show the audience the reviews from film/magazine critics

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PARANORMAL ACTIVITY:STYLE:-There is use of a wide shot to show the audience in the auditorium. Also, during scary parts of the film the audience is watching, the use of zoom is used to zoomfurther into a member of the audiences’ reaction (e.g. hiding face, screamingetc.)-The use of night vision is used to show the audience in the auditorium and their reactions-Also, the actual film footage is made in the style of found footage; all filmed on a hand held camera to add to the ultra realism feel of the film-The lighting of the film is completely natural (dark) as the audience is in a dark cinema room, and the film footage is filmed in the dark/night -The trailer continuously switches from the footage of the film and footage of theaudience. Therefore, the audience of the trailer will feel like they’re on a ‘rollercoaster’ as the trailer is very ‘jumpy’ and frightening

MUSIC/SOUND:-There is no soundtrack used in this trailer as the films genre is found footage. Therefore the lack of music creates ultra naturalism-Also, the trailers style is to show the audiences reaction instead of focusing on the film

STARS:-There are no real, big-name stars in this film therefore there is no real focus on them in the trailer as the audience will lose interest as they won’t know who they are-Also, the narrative of the trailer is not primarily about the characters; but to scare the audience

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PARANORMAL ACTIVITY:PLOT:-The plot remains unknown after watching the trailer-The function of this trailer is to scare the audience. This is cleverly done by making the audience feel like there on a ‘rollercoaster’ as the trailer skips from film footage to actual audience reactions-Therefore, the main objective of this trailer is to show how the audience perceived the film (scary, creepy, shocked)-However, the plot of the film clips is to show how the film is a found footage film and and made to look real

EDITING:-The editing used in this trailer is a lot of cross-cutting between the audiences’ reactions and the film footage. This is used to scare the audience and promote just how scary this film is -Critics reviews are also added at the end to further promote the scariness and success of the film-Also, sound effects are added when switching from text and trailer clip to create tension and drama

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ATROCIOUS: STYLE:- The film is in the found footage style, therefore the conventional components of cinematography are challenged in a way that supports the found footage style of filmmaking. This is done to make the film look like an amateur home documentary, made by the 3 teenagers- The lighting is mainly dark to fit with the conventions of a horror; darkness at night, scary, creepy etc. Therefore, most of the film is shot in night vision to further convey this-Wide shot used to show locations of the murder scenes, dog barking etc.

SOUND:- The main dialogue used in this trailer include the conventional horror; screaming, shouting, swearing and crying- The opening of the trailer includes some scary music to promote that this trailer is of a horror convention. This is also supported by the sped up talking/screaming from the home footage to create tension and suspense as to what this could be/mean-There is also a small snippet of spoken narration at the beginning, used to inform the audience what the films about- There is also quite funky, drum-based, fast music played when the trailer shows pictures of the murder scenes; this creates drama as the music is loud and very present

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ATROCIOUS:STARS:-The stars are unknown cast and therefore fit with the conventions of a horror as horrors rarely use well-known actors as audiences don’t want to see them portrayed in sinister, scary situationsTherefore, there is little emphasis on the cast as this is not the main feature of the film

PLOT:- The main idea of the plot is basically told by this trailer- The trailer informs the audience of how there has been murders unsolved for many years; footage has been analysed by police experts etc. We then see snippets of the footage the police have been analysing and understand what scenarios take place-Therefore, with the basics of the plot exposed to the audience, the trailer is made to scare the audience via the actual story and the footage; not just by clips of the scariest parts, dramatic music, fast pace cutting between clips etc.-This differs from the plot features of ‘Paranormal Activity’ and ‘Blair Witch Project’

EDITING:-The beginning gives a title informing the audience of the title of the film and a definition of the film title; in relation to the film -The use of titles is also used to explain the story of the film, e.g. “the most horrific murder of the last ten years have gone unsolved”- The style of using the clips of the film is used in montage format as there is a wide variety of clips which the editing cuts from every so often in a fast format to the show the main aspects of the film- There is also the use of running the ‘tape’ backwards to give an effect of the footage being rewound on a TV screen. This further emphasises the style of filmmaking- found footage